Father Raymond J. de Souza: My friend knew well the danger of intolerant liberalism

NEW YORK — One of America’s leading intellectuals of faith and public life, Richard John Neuhaus, was born in the Ottawa Valley; his pastor father was an American who accepted a post at the Lutheran parish in Pembroke, Ont. Richard spent his childhood in Pembroke before leaving for education in the United States; he would eventually become a Lutheran pastor himself, stationed in Brooklyn.

He would be a leader in the 1960s civil rights movement and in anti-Vietnam War protests. But he would split with the political left and become a leading conservative voice. In 1990, he would become Catholic and be ordained a priest in 1991. Founder of the influential journal First Things, his influence on thinking about faith and public life was immense, and he influenced a vast number of individuals, including myself, as both a friend and mentor.

A towering figure, consulted by popes and presidents, he was also the priest who took his turn offering Mass at Immaculate Conception, the parish on Manhattan’s lower east side where most of the parishioners would have no idea that he was a writer and orator of global influence. In 2009, when he died his funeral was held there, among the people he served and many others who came from far and wide.

We gathered there again this week for a memorial Mass on the 10th anniversary of his death, and swapped stories and memories. And a common topic was what Fr. Neuhaus would have thought about the tensions now roiling our common life.

It is worth noting that the chief biographical work of Fr. Neuhaus was written by a Canadian, the principal of the University of St. Michael’s College, Randy Boyagoda. Published in 2015, the author himself is engaged today in the great question that animated Fr. Neuhaus’s long career: what contribution does a liberal democratic society need from the world of faith?

Fr. Neuhaus knew well that the liberal order can be threatened by blood-and-soil nationalism, and that religious identity can be put to illiberal ends. The history of the 20th century made us alert to those dangers. It also made us alert to the lethal dangers of atheistic totalitarianism, in both its communist and fascist forms.

Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, right, listens to Rabbi Michael Lerner during a pre-tape of “Meet the Press” at the NBC studios in Washington, DC., on April 12, 2006.

But Fr. Neuhaus also warned of an “illiberal secularism,” which speaks in the name of liberalism, but seeks to exclude any transcendent claims — including religious ones — from our common life together. It views traditional religious faith with suspicion, even as a threat.

Fr. Neuhaus spent his summers back in Canada, on the Ottawa River across from Pembroke, and so kept tabs of matters Canadian. He died before Justin Trudeau was elected, but would not have been surprised that in the name of liberal values, the prime minister would be sharply intolerant of those who would dissent from the consensus of secular liberalism.

Father Raymond J. de Souza: My friend knew well the danger of intolerant liberalism

Related Posts - Usa news

AP Exclusive: Vatican knew of Argentine bishop misconduct ORAN, Argentina — The Vatican received information in 2015 and 2017 that an Argentine bishop close to Pope Francis had taken naked selfies, exhibited “obscene” behaviour and had been accused of misconduct with seminarians, his former vicar general told The Associated Press, undermining Vatican claims that allegations of sexual abuse were only made a few months ago. Francis accepted Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta's resignation in August 2017, after priests in the remote northern Argentine diocese of Oran complained about his authoritarian rule and a former vicar, seminary rector and another prelate provided reports to the Vatican alleging abuses of power, inappropriate…

Katherine Ryan on a lifelong love of comedy: ‘I knew it could get me out of trouble’ It has been said that Canada is the perfect country of origin for a stand-up comedian. Caught between British and American cultures, in terms of music, television and film, we have our noses up against the glass window of the circuses beyond our borders. The latest to emerge from this Canadian comedy hothouse is the host of “The Stand Up Show with Katherine Ryan,” premiering Tuesday on the Comedy Network. The eight-episode series, shot last summer in Montreal on stage at the Just for Laughs comedy festival, features Ryan working her observational and self-effacing act, and introducing comedians such as…

How this woman went from a $20,000 a year Trader Joe’s job to a well-paid programmer at a San Francisco startup A few years ago, Dora Korpar was a college grad working at a low-paying job. Today, she's a programmer at a San Francisco startup making good money and looking at a bright future. She changed her life after a college friend told her he landed a job at Apple by teaching himself to code. Korpar offers tips on how anyone can learn to code, then land a job. Nearly four years ago, Dora Korpar was adrift. She had finished college with a degree in biology and discovered that she didn't really want be a doctor. She didn't even want to…

The whirlwind success of Netflix’s ‘You’ and ‘Bird Box’ shows it’s become a well-oiled FOMO machine With the swift success of "Bird Box" and "You" last month, in terms of viewership and cultural impact, Netflix showed its originals could create the type of water cooler talk that live TV was famous for. Netflix said "Bird Box" was watched by 80 million households in its first month, and "You" by 40 million. "For part of your Netflix subscription, you are in the zeitgeist," Netflix's head of content, Ted Sarandos, said recently. For the first time, I felt a tangible sense of FOMO before I'd watched these titles, and it wasn't because they were groundbreaking works of art,…